Street Photography

I started today by reading a personal essay on passion written by a very smart and bright teen. The funny thing is, I have never met this teen, only her father who is the kindest man.

One fact I like about the essay was the mention of Nancy Drew, an illusory character in a series of mystery fiction books that I also read when I was growing up. The fictional character is considered a cultural icon for her contributions to the formative years of many women, including mine 🙂

Like this:

This is the last series from my Quiapo photo walk 🙂 Children have always been my favorite subject because they are precocious and have proclivities that are too cute to resist even if they make your life hell.

Like this:

Many years ago, Quiapo was downright dirty — covered in filth, and wet everywhere even if it was high noon. Today, that has changed a bit \O/

Last April, there was no reason for me not to enjoy the photo walk with my friends. I wasn’t even scared of pickpocketers, or brawlers, or those who’d grab you by the arm to force you to buy something from them. Or kids begging for coins with their grubby palms.

This is not to badmouth the place, this is merely telling the truth about what it was years ago. Right now, anyone going there can be happy to some extent that it has changed.

And with none of those… I thought I’d play FOOTSIE (hahaha!) with Quiapo.

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If these photos do not qualify as street photography, then I’ll just call them “strokes of serendipity.” Serendipity because they’re in front of my camera, and they’re agreeable situations I didn’t seek but found interesting.

The worst thing they’d be called is “POVERTY PORN” since a street photographer is not supposed to take photos anymore of people (or scene) in dire situations.

I was unable to imagine my reaction when somebody described my street photo “poverty porn” in one of the SP group sites on Facebook 🙂 I thought “Wot?”

And I thought “poverty porn,” according to Journalists for Human Rights, is “documentation of poverty for profit” since images can convey “powerful messages and can engage” people “deeply and personally, especially in vulnerable moments.” Iba pala?

Even if you’re not peddling your photo to make profit, it can be labeled “poverty porn?” But hey, that’s from a human rights journalist’s point of view.

Like this:

Out of a number of photos, these are the only ones that seem to qualify as SP (nee street photography). There’s got to be more there, but I haven’t had the chance to look them all up lately. Maybe next weekend I can finally give them the right mind 🙂

Nonetheless, I am happy I have these to post here. Better than nothing, right?

Like this:

Pardon the continuous uploading, everyone 🙂 I wanted to do this a couple of weeks ago, unfortunately, the time required didn’t get to be mine. Today, Friday, is my free day so here’s what I did when I was away — street photography too!

Of all photography styles, this is the most difficult for me to understand. It looks easy to do, but not quite.

Always, there seems to be more in it than one can readily understand and grasp… well, even if she has over a hundred photos that seem to be “street photography.”

Most of my influences, I must say, follow very old customs and beliefs when it comes to taking street photos — no cropping, no heavy editing, no watermark, no description when posting or sharing. “No” a lot of things.

Of course, those are the rather technical aspects. The principles of street photography are much harder to understand and learn though they, well… and again… seems to be easy.

From a friend whose into this genre, I asked if this photo is street photography or SP. She said “yes,” and it’s called “LAYERING.” Layering as an SP parlance is when one succeeds in getting several “subjects or scenes located on different planes inside the frame”

Still, that is just one explanation. There’s more discussion about layering, it’s soooo hard in the head. I’d rather be hit by flu than suffer from mental trouble if I continue on the web.

Easy to understand, hard to do, right! It’s a rat race out there whenever; finding the scenes/subjects so far is a question of ability for me and patience for that “decisive moment,” not the camera I use, or the fact that I am free to really just document anything I want. It’s like looking for a needle in a haystack. Whadda!